ISTANBUL

Taiwanese soldiers are receiving training to use the US rocket system, a media report claimed on Monday.

The first batch of 29 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) arrived in the island nation, the official Central News Agency reported, without giving the exact number.

Soldiers from the 58th Artillery Command of the 10th Army Corps stationed in Taichung are “undergoing training on how to operate them,” a military source told the agency.

Taipei is likely to deploy them in the western part of the island nation. The US military has been training Taiwanese soldiers since 2021.

Separately, Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te Monday attended the keel-laying ceremony for a new light frigate prototype at the southern Kaohsiung shipyard.

The naval frigate co-produced with a US firm will have air-defense capabilities.

Amid heightening tensions across the Taiwan Strait, Taipei also saw some 22 accidents involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from last April to this May.

Increasing defense engagements between Taipei and Washington have worried China, which claims Taiwan has its “breakaway province.”

Beijing said US arms supply to Taiwan “will not close the cross-Straits military gap” as the Biden administration approved its 17th arms sale worth $1.98B to Taiwan last month, which includes a surface-to-air missile system.

Taipei on Monday also detected 44 Chinese military aircraft around the island nation, besides six naval vessels and one official ship.

“37 of the aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s southeastern and southwestern” air defense identification zone, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.